1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sensor arrangement for the activation or starting of an active body, especially for a land mine which is deployed against ground and airborne targets, including a waking sensor which is responsive to the approach of a target, and incorporating circuit arrangements for the environmentally-adaptive setting of sensor-evaluating circuits in order to release the operating mechanism employed for combatting the target.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
A sensor arrangement of that type is presently known from the disclosure of European Patent Appln. 03 75 872 A1 in the form of a seismic waking or approach sensor possessing a response threshold which is set in dependence upon the environmental conditions which are encountered at the locale of emplacement, especially the characteristics of the terrain so as to, on the one hand, avoid an excessively high rate in, signal errors and, on the other hand, to still be able to ensure a controllable degree of sensitivity with respect to specific targets or target objects
In particular, the invention is directed to a sensor arrangement for a land mine possessing an operative mechanism for articles of submunition as disclosed in British Patent 2 174 482 A, the latter of which is commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application and the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. In the instance of that patent, the waking sensor initiates the lifting up of the active body from a launch or starting apparatus, which remains stationarily in place, whereupon the active body again descends into the target area while suspended from a parachute, and searches the target area in a spirally-narrowing manner through the intermediary of a search head-sensor. Upon the detection of a target which is to be attacked, the search head causes the warhead which is equipped with a projectile-forming hollow charge-insert to be released in a direction towards the target or target object. In connection with this aspect, problems can be encountered in that, for the kinematics commencing from the response of the waking or activating sensor; in effect, for the ascent out of the starting or launch apparatus and for the braked-down rotational descent into the target area, there passes a period of time which is not adequately reducible, so that no effect can be achieved in the target object; for instance, when the latter only reaches or contacts the periphery in the range of detection for the alarm sensor and has already again distanced itself from the region which is detectable by the active body, when the active body after passing through its apogee finally again descends into the target area with an activated search head. As a consequence thereof, the raising out from the launch apparatus should, accordingly, only be initiated in such instances when the speed and the direction in the movement of the target is oriented in such a manner that the cylinder of the search head and active body during the descent thereof will also actually detect this target object within its effective range, possibly in the middle thereof. In contrast therewith, the active body should remain in its state of readiness to function when the probability is too low that the target object which has been detected by the waking sensor can also in actuality be defended against or warded off with a reasonably good chance of success in view of its motion vectors.
However, in this case, there can also be encountered problems in that the active body which is deployed either manually or by means of a mine thrower or launcher, should not lift up too high above the terrain due to camouflaging reasons, so that even low rises in the terrain or growths in the surroundings may obstruct the direct view towards the approaching target object. Simultaneously, it is intended that the individual active bodies contained in a mine should be able to communicate with each other, such that even upon the response of a plurality of waking or activating sensors there will be triggered the defense mechanism only at the location at which, due to the position relative to the momentary movement of the target, there is given the greatest prospect of success for the acquisition of the target during the phase of descent for the active body. Finally, for an optimizing in the utilization of the active body, it should also be of interest to not only determine the radial distance to and the speed of the approaching target, but also the direction towards the detected target object, so as to be able to derive therefrom; for example, a command transmission to a more expediently located mine, without necessitating installation of an apparatus for a laser-retromodulator system, such as is known from the disclosure of German Patent 36 25 334 C2.